Retail in Austria: A Lot of Space but Little Variety

With 1,72 sqm retail space per capita Austria belongs to those countries in Europe which have a very high sales space density.

This has to do with the fact that Austria has a lot of retail parks and many large-scaled DIY and furniture markets. Especially in this branches Austria has only some players that dominate the market.

Only about 20 tenants share almost 80% of the total sales area in retail parks. Similar is the situation in the large-scaled retail sector: The top 5 market player in the DIY and furniture sector dispose of about 90% and 70% of the total sales area in their branch respectively.

In Europe only Switzerland and San Marino have a higher density than Austria. Internationally the highest density with 3,36 sqm per capita can be found in the USA. Interesting is also that some Eastern European countries show a higher retail sales area density than Western European countries. Thus, with about 1,09 sqm per capita a Hungarian has more sales area than a Briton. Also Lithuania, Slovenia and Poland register more sales area than Portugal. These high figures can be explained with the shopping center boom of the past 15 years.